Scholarship Donation Credit
R.C. 5747.73(B) allows “a nonrefundable credit against a taxpayer’s aggregate tax liability”
equal to cash donated to scholarship granting organizations. It cannot exceed $1,500 on a joint
return or $750 otherwise, and on a joint return each spouse’s gifts count for at most $750. The
taxpayer must send the Tax Commissioner the organization’s receipt. verified revised-code.txt
program/scholarship-donation-credit · 2 nodes point here
The section is 5747.73, not 5747.75. Issue #763 cited R.C. 5747.75. That section is the credit for tuition paid to a nonchartered nonpublic school, a different credit that the Tax Expenditure Report lists as its own entry. verified Tax Expenditure Report
The Attorney General certifies; nobody reports. Under division (C) the Attorney General must
certify an applicant that is a 501(c)(3) organization, “primarily awards academic scholarships
for primary and secondary school students”, and “prioritizes” low-income students, and must
decide within 30 days. The statute defines neither “low-income” nor “prioritizes”, sets no term
for a certification, and requires no organization to report a scholarship. It also does not
require the organization or the school to be in Ohio, or the school to be chartered. verified revised-code.txt
The state pays nothing out. The credit reduces what a taxpayer owes, so its cost is revenue the General Revenue Fund never collects. LSC noted that the Local Government Fund and the Public Library Fund, which “each receive 1.66% of GRF tax revenues”, bear part of that loss. verified LSC analyses of the scholarship donation credit
What this repository computed Contents
Not what Ohio publishes. Figures derived here from committed fixtures, each one citing the test that reproduces it.
What returns claimed Contents
Taxation’s Table Y-1 reports $268,616 claimed on 523 returns for tax year 2021,
$11,924,685 for tax year 2022, $26,808,131.10 for tax year 2023, and
$35,509,908.41 on 30,584 returns for tax year 2024. verified crates/project
These are upper bounds, not costs. Y-1 reports each credit “as claimed on each individual return before application to income or tax liability”, and a nonrefundable credit cannot exceed what the taxpayer owes. verified Table Y-1 — Ohio individual income tax credits by income class
Tax year 2021 is small because the window was short. The credit applied to taxable years
beginning in 2021, and the first organizations were certified in November 2021. verified crates/project
The tax year 2022 average is over the statute’s cap and under the forms’ Contents
Tax year 2022’s claims average $1,091 a return. As enacted, the statute capped the credit at
$750 “per taxpayer” and said nothing about joint returns. verified crates/project
H.B. 66 of the 134th General Assembly set the $1,500 joint cap, effective April 3, 2023, with no
applicability section for R.C. 5747.73, and LSC called the change “clarifying that both filers
on a joint return are entitled to a $750 credit”. verified LSC analyses of the scholarship donation credit
Taxation’s forms had already applied that reading. The printed tax year 2022 instructions, “accurate as of December 12, 2022”, told joint filers whose spouses both gave that “each of you can claim this credit (up to $1,500 total)”. The tax year 2021 instructions say nothing about joint returns. verified Ohio IT 1040 instruction booklets, tax years 2021 and 2022 So H.B. 66 wrote down what filers had been told for tax year 2022, and the average is under the cap Taxation administered. Under those instructions only a joint return could claim more than $750, so the amount over $750 is joint returns claiming two spouses’ gifts, or claims made in error. inference How much of it Taxation allowed is not reported. open
What Taxation estimated Contents
Every figure here is an estimate of revenue forgone, and the two editions disagree. The FY2024-25
Tax Expenditure Report put the credit at $50.5 million a year for FY2022 through FY2025. The
FY2026-27 edition put FY2024 at $21.0 million, rising to $25.5 million in FY2027. Both
editions cite data codes B and C, from other governments and other sources. Neither cites code
A, the department’s own returns. verified crates/project
The returns ran ahead of the later edition. Tax year 2024’s claims are more than the FY2026-27 edition’s estimate for any year it covers. Because claims are an upper bound and the estimate is not built from them, the two measure different things, and neither is the cost. inference
How many organizations could receive a gift Contents
On 2026-10-05, 81 organizations held a valid certification, counted once each by EIN.
89 have been certified since 2021. Seven held a valid certification on January 1, 2022, and
72 on January 1, 2026. verified crates/project
The list is a hand extract from the Attorney General’s page, because the page cannot be pinned
by digest. verified Scholarship granting organization certifications — Ohio Attorney General
Two instruments for the same tuition Contents
EdChoice pays tuition from state funds appropriated to a scholarship funding unit, and the department records each award. The credit pays tuition from an organization’s gifts, and the state’s part is the tax it forgoes on them. A family can hold both: nothing in R.C. 5747.73 bars an organization from awarding a scholarship to an EdChoice student, so a single year’s tuition can be paid by two state subsidies, one appropriated and one forgone. inference Whether that happens, and how often, is not reported by anyone. open
The federal credit Contents
Federal law enacted in July 2025 creates a federal credit for gifts to scholarship granting organizations from 2027, in states that elect into it. No source held here records it, whether Ohio has elected, or whether its certified organizations would qualify. open
Properties Contents
| Name | Credit for donations to scholarship granting organizations |
|---|---|
| Mechanism | tax-credit |
| Why this mechanism | A nonrefundable credit against personal income tax liability, paid in revenue forgone rather than by appropriation. The state pays nothing to the organization or the family. The program has been a credit since it was enacted. verified None of the class's other six mechanisms fits, so tax-credit was added for it; the decision record gives the reasons. |
| Eligibility | A taxpayer who gives cash to a certified scholarship granting organization and sends the Tax Commissioner its receipt. An investor in a pass-through entity that gives may claim a share, but all investors together may claim no more than $750. Since H.B. 33 of the 135th General Assembly a gift made by the return's unextended due date counts, and one contribution cannot be claimed in two years. verified Who receives the scholarships is set by each organization, under a statutory priority for low-income students that no term defines. verified |
| Amount | The cash donated, up to $750 a taxpayer; since H.B. 66 of the 134th General Assembly, up to $1,500 on a joint return with each spouse's share capped at $750. verified The credit is nonrefundable, so a taxpayer with less liability than the gift receives less than the cap. verified |
| Appropriation line | None. The credit has no fund or ALI; its cost is General Revenue Fund tax revenue forgone, part of which the Local Government Fund and the Public Library Fund bear. verified |
Links Contents
Also mentions
Pointed at by
| EdChoice Expansion Scholarship | Parallels |
|---|---|
| Traditional EdChoice Scholarship | Parallels |
What this node does not hold Contents
scholarships awarded and their recipients — R.C. 5747.73 requires no organization to report what it awarded, to whom, or for which school, and the Attorney General's list carries none of it. Without that, the credit's reach to families, its overlap with EdChoice, and the share that reaches low-income students cannot be measured.
revenue forgone — Taxation publishes claims before application to liability and estimates built without return data. The amount the credit actually reduced liability by is in the returns and is not published.